Of geography and food

I was recently in Japan for a few weeks. I was traveling most of the time, which is a great way to try lots of different foods. As I was looking through some photos from this trip, I realized that food gives a pretty good indication of the geography of the trip.

Normally I might have documented this with soft cream flavors, but I actually didn’t have much in the way of soft cream on this trip. The memorable ones were rhubarb soft in Itoshima (made with Hokkaido rhubard) and tomorokoshi (corn) soft in Oita.

Since I can’t document this trip in soft cream, let me try to describe it in terms of the main courses. This, of course, is a jerk chicken burger at the unmistakable Natty Dread.

Just as the temples and shrines of Japan (a photo like this screams Nikkō{.mw-redirect}, doesn’t it?) are recognizable by place, so is much of the food.

You won’t find a kujira platter with this much on it just anywhere.

Nor basashi. At least basashi like this.

Sashimi, well, one finds it everywhere. But I thought this presentation in Shimonoseki was especially nice.

Now on to one of my favorite dishes. Fresh Ibaraki nattō, with some other good things like an egg, lots of tuna, some vegetables, etc. Stir it up, get some onto a sheet of nori, and this delicious treat is ready.

It goes down exceedingly well with nihonshu (sake) or in this instance, with a highball.

I also had plenty of calcium on this trip. Most of the supplemental calcium was in the form of bones and shells. These little shrimp (also from Ibaraki) were remarkable.